Bengal govt calls doctors’ organisations for talks as stir intensifies | Kolkata

The West Bengal government on Sunday evening called all doctor’s organisations in the state for a meeting on Monday afternoon even as the indefinite hunger strike by junior doctors seeking reforms at medical colleges and hospitals gained momentum on its eighth day.

Hours after the Joint Platform of Doctors, West Bengal, announcing a 12-hour symbolic hunger strike and agitation across Bengal on Monday and a protest carnival in Kolkata on Tuesday, state chief secretary Manoj Pant sent e-mails to all organisations in the joint platform.

“You are requested to attend the meeting with a delegation of two members from your organisation,” the e-mail said.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also in charge of the health and home departments, earlier met the junior doctors thrice. This was the first time the government invited all doctors’ bodies, including the ones comprising senior doctors, for a meeting. The organisations did not clarify till 8pm whether they will attend the meeting at Sasthya Bhawan, the headquarters of the health department, at 12.30 pm on Monday.

As the five-day Durga puja came to an end, the Joint Platform of Doctors on Sunday urged civil society to join Monday’s agitation.

“Along with this, people from all walks of life, including all doctors, are requested to actively participate in the Droho Carnival at Rani Rasmani Avenue on October 15,” the platform’s joint convenors, Dr Punyabrata Guna and Dr Hiralal Konar, said in a statement.

The droh (revolt) carnival in Kolkata will coincide with the Durga idol immersion carnival on Red Road, an annual event chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched in 2016 to showcase Bengal’s heritage. Eminent citizens and foreign dignitaries are invited to this state event.

Both carnivals will be held on a day when the Supreme Court will hear the case involving the August 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Ordered by the Calcutta high court on August 13, the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the crime which triggered the ongoing protests. Till now, three persons, including the hospital’s former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh, have been arrested.

The chief secretary sent a second e-mail to the Joint Platform of Doctors and the Junior Doctors Forum around 7.30 on Sunday urging them not to hold their carnival.

“The second e-mail we received sounded more like an order. The government seems to be oblivious of the reality. The e-mail said our carnival may disrupt a government event and cast a negative impact on citizens,” Dr Konar said.

On Sunday, a day after two more junior doctors on hunger strike were shifted to hospital after their health deteriorated, many homemakers responded to a call raised from the agitation site in Kolkata to shut the home kitchen for half a day.

“I spontaneously responded to the call to observe Sunday as arandhan diwas (no cooking day). The young doctors are starving for more than a week. Can’t I live without food for a few hours?” Aradhana Dutta, a homemaker from Palta in North 24 Parganas district, told the local media.

Following the protest Rabindranath Tagore led against division of the Bengal province by the British government in 1905, citizens who gathered at the site of the hunger strike at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata tied rakhi on each other’s wrists and took oath to take the movement forward.

A group of eminent citizens, including movie personality Aparna Sen and director Kamaleswar Mukherjee, wrote an e-mail to the chief minister urging her to sit across the table with the agitating doctors.

“The government cannot sit silent at this hour. The chief minister must respond to the hunger strike,” Mukherjee, who is also a doctor, said.

Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh argued that the hunger strike was being carried out only to complicate matters.

“The high court ordered the CBI probe. The federal agency is working under the watch of the Supreme Court. What role can the state government play here? The hunger strike is being held only to complicate matters when the state is reforming the healthcare system,” Ghosh said.